Frontiers Music Srl is excited to announce the release of the highly anticipated new studio album from UNRULY CHILD, “Can’t Go Home” on February 24th, 2017.

Marcie Free (vocalist – King Kobra, Signal), Bruce Gowdy (guitarist – Stone Fury, World Trade), and Guy Allison (keyboardist – Lodgic, World Trade, Doobie Brothers) together with the original rhythm section from the first record, drummer – Jay Schellen (Hurricane, World Trade, current touring member of Yes) and bassist – Larry Antonino (Pablo Cruise), are back again with an awesome rock album, which will please old and new fans alike!

“Early in 2016, we decided to make time and give it a go once again with all five Unruly Child members,” tells Guy Allison. “The new album, “Can’t Go Home” has now become my favorite set of Unruly Child Band songs and performances ever. True story!”

The group has generated an exciting new album reflecting its musical roots in contemporary and classic rock sensibilities. With the return to the original line-up from the debut album, they have discovered that while time may pass, some things never change…

“We are so excited with this new album coming out in February,” adds Marcie Free. “And if you find that you still got the heebie-jeebies after that and are in need of another transfusion of Unruly – try a shot of our new box set coming out too! It’s got practically everything we’ve ever done in it and that should hold over even the most shakiest UC junkies for at least as long as it takes before we hit your area for some live shows! So come on get on board baby! The UC Train is about to blast off!!”

The band is, in fact. also working on a box set release of their independent albums, which will see the light of day in spring on Frontiers. “We put together all the earlier material that’s out of print (the first album non-withstanding – you know, lawyers!) together in one package – one box set – to make available to our fans,” concludes Guy. News about the box set release will be coming soon.

With so much excitement centered around their new record, it has sparked talk of touring…Will they hit the road? News will also be coming on that front very shortly.

The future looks very promising with the return of Unruly Child, stay tuned and get ready to enjoy another superior slice of melodic rock from these masters!

“Can’t Go Home” Track Listing:
1. The Only One
2. Four Eleven
3. Driving Into The Future
4. Get On Top
5. See If She Floats
6. She Can’t Go Home
7. Point Of View
8. Ice Cold Sunshine
9. When Love Is Here
10. Sunlit Sky
11. Someday Somehow

As I said in my letter to you asking to vote which genres to do, it’s been bugging me forever that I’ve got this interview archive of all these interviews I’ve done that will never wind up in any of my books, and thus likely never see the light of day… unless I made books out of them, of course!

Very important: if you have a pile of my books, don’t worry about overlap—this is material I haven’t used in my books, with minor exceptions. For Prog, the main act avoided is Yes—if you want all my Yes chat, get Time and a Word: The Yes Story. I don’t want to give you material you already have from me. But everyone else is here!

So again, as a way to unlock this material, I’m compiling the raw transcripts, in Q&A form, with a little background info and historical context to each chat, into book form. Popoff Archive – 2: Progressive Rock, is the second one, given its popularity in the voting, and it’s 292 pages of deep prog rock tissue massage. All told, it’s a longer book that Popoff Archive – 1: Doom Metal by almost 50 pages.

And listen, it’s a given these early ones will be the first to sell out, as we work our way through the dozen planned, possibly with a box to put them all in, once I get the dozen out. Popoff Archive – 1: Doom Metal is approaching the halfway mark, about two weeks after me writing up one of these little flyers for it.

In this edition, we have the following. I’ve included an excerpt from my lead-in explanation for each.

John Wetton – King Crimson, Uriah Heep, UK, Asia, 1995
This was actually one of my first interviews ever (and an in-person to boot). I was quite nervous due to John’s daunting catalogue, but Wetton quickly put me at ease with his more than pleasant demeanor.

Lief Sorbye, Tempest, 1998
This is me deep into the Magna Carta swing of things, writing bios for them, enjoying talking to a non-metalhead, Lief, his Oakland, CA band in fact being spirited Celtic rock crossed with prog and folk.

Pete Morticelli, Magna Carta Records, 2000
The occasion of this chat was to create a little bio of Magna Carta Records itself, pretty much the premiere, thriving progressive rock record label in the mid to late ‘90s through the early ‘00s.

Steve Walsh, Kansas, Streets, April 5, 2000
Not sure how hard Steve is normally to get an interview with on the phone, but I’ve heard he’s pretty reclusive on the road, having heard stories of him dashing offstage and on his way to the hotel before the house lights come on.

Roine Stolt, The Flower Kings, Transatlantic, April 7, 2000
Around our magazine, we were constantly trying to squeeze the prog stuff in because we found that a huge chunk of the metal crowd gravitated first toward prog than anything else, when sniffing outside of kerranging guitars.

Phil Ehart, Kansas, May 14, 2000
Kansas has always been my desert island bands, a band with a huge catalogue that, no matter how much I play it, I never seem to assimilate it, learn it, understand it.

Kerry Livgren, Kansas, May 15, 2000
I believe what was going down here was that at the same time I was asked to write the label bio for Steve Walsh’s solo record, I was tapped to write the bio for the new Kansas record, also to be on Magna Carta. Ergo the in-depth discussion of what was to be issued as Somewhere to Elsewhere.

Roine Stolt, The Flower Kings, Transatlantic, May 24, 2000
Looks like the main purpose of this interview was to gather enough info to write the Magna Carta bio for Space Revolver.

Kevin Moore, Chroma Key, Dream Theater, October 26, 2000
The guy’s such a huge talent and should be super-famed and respected as far as I’m concerned. Man, for the the follow-up, Graveyard Mountain Home, I just did a regular interview with him for that, but I was so stunned by how cool the idea was, to write what is essentially a soundtrack album to a 1950s guidance film, an incredible album, that I had to chuck back a few drinks to talk to him on the phone.

Nick D’Virgilio, Spock’s Beard, June 20, 2001
Good drumming/drummer stuff here, along with a l’il Spock’s Beard. What I like about including a chat like this is that there’s so much on Karma here, that it might help you hook up with an album you never knew existed or maybe have forgotten about.

Robert Berry, GTR, 3, August 20, 2001
Gotta hand it to Robert, he made quite a go of it, after this first record, becoming a little Trans-Siberian Orchestra, as it were.

Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull, September 28, 2001
One of the happy surprises about crossing over into getting to talk to a few prog guys was how accessible Ian Anderson turned out to be, and how delightful and interview subject he was. Out chats were always phoners, but I parlayed a quick meeting with him once backstage at the Molson Amphitheatre here in Toronto, as part of conducting an in-person with Tull’s guitarist Martin Barre, also a perfectly congenial gent.

Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull, April 19, 2002
Another chat with one of the top prog legends, and, like Jon Anderson and one supposes Rick Wakeman, here’s a guy that could have been a manager or a businessman. Well, Ian is a businessman, with his hand in many pies. Good on him, a born leader and all that, plus an interesting chat all ‘round.

David Sylvian, Japan, solo, May 2002
Intimidating this was, given that it was an in-person during load-in/soundcheck, sitting in the nice theater seats at the Danforth Music Hall, which is just a couple blocks from my house. Very convenient and classy venue to see a show.

Steve Hackett, Genesis, GTR, solo, June 17, 2002
Steve’s always a perfectly pleasant guy to talk to, and besides the project at hand, i.e. the reason he’s doing press, there’s always the well of all that classic Genesis potentially to be dealt with, along with GTR and the pretty substantially solo catalogue, of which I totally love Cured, along with his more recent albums.

Michael Sadler, Saga, July 2002
So glad that they were part of our mag’s portfolio, because even though there are Toronto roots to the band, they were rarely around here, being bigger, certainly, in Germany.

Jim Crichton, Saga, August 22, 2002
So this must’ve been that bright sunny day, myself and Tim Henderson down at the Molson Amphitheater to see Saga supporting Tull. But we also had access, and as it turns out, too much of it, with one funny moment being us standing around in their dressing room while they were actually dressing, and Ian looking a bit perturbed like, what are these two guys doing here?

Martin Barre, Jethro Tull, August 22, 2002
This was likely out on the outdoor seating area off the catering room at Molson Amphitheater, for a nice relaxed sit-down chat before the show, Tull with Saga supporting.

Robbie Steinhardt, Kansas, Sept. 1, 2002
Looks like this chat was set up, likely by buddy and PR whiz Chip Ruggieri, to talk about a hits compilation, which means basically free reign to talk about anything we want—yay!

Neil Morse, Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, solo September 15, 2002
Looks like I wasn’t writing the bio for this, but rather it was a regular ol’ interview. The occasion was the release of my favourite Spock’s Beard album, Snow.

Terry Bozzio, Frank Zappa, UK, Bozzio Levin Stevens, November 9, 2002
Terry came to Toronto to do a drum clinic and I met with him one weekend afternoon at the Opera House, conducting this chat in the crappy and clammy basement dressing room… although I can’t quite picture it—we may have stayed upstairs on the main floor, where it’s marginally less depressive.

Nick D’Virgilio, Spock’s Beard, solo May 9, 2003
Looks like this would have been for the bio for the band’s follow-up to Snow called Feel Euphoria. The big deal here was the departure of Neal Morse.

Steve Rothery and Steve Hogarth, Marillion, June 10, 2005
Never thought I’d ever get to see Marillion, but here they were coming to Toronto’s Mod Club, a classy, intimate venue, but one that’s a pain to get to and pretty tight on security when you’re just trying to get in for yer damn interview.

Steve Hackett, Genesis, GTR, solo, September 28, 2005
I interviewed the mellow ex-Genesis axe-meister two days before I was there to witness his heavenly acoustic show at the Markham Theater for the Performing Arts just north of the city.

Jim Crichton, Saga, November 15, 2005
Like Kansas, Saga are one of those bands where I own everything but don’t know the records well, so in continuing to talk to the guys, I can of course give them some press, but as well I get to have these records somewhat personalized for myself. That’s the theory anyway.

Carl Palmer, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Asia, February 24, 2006
Well, this was an intimidating one to be sure. Fortunately it was a phoner so, you know, you’ve got the wiki page open, you’re surrounded by all the albums and you can constantly look at your notes and cross stuff out, change course etc. And the frustrating part is, there’s the current press-pertinent stuff to get to, but you want to talk about so much more.

John Wetton, King Crimson, Uriah Heep, UK, Asia, April 6, 2006
Lots of Asia in this one, plus some cool UK stuff.

Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull, October 30, 2007
Another chance to speak to a legend of the biz, and one that is a natural-born explainer, the best type of interviewee one can hope for.

Chris Herin, Tiles, February 14, 2008
This is kind of a cool one, because I interrogated the hell out of him as well for a book project I’ve since sorta shelved. I had started gathering survey answers on greatest guitar solos of all time, and then thought I’d massage into my interviews, some expert/authority chat about these poll-winning guitarists.

Rich Williams, Kansas, June 26, 2008
I seem to recall that I was to phone Rich for this, and a) he wasn’t really expecting the call and b) seemed unaware that the reason for our chat was the reissue of the Two for the Show live album, which back in the day, shortly after its October 1978 release date, went friggin’ platinum. Man, go take a look—Kansas sold a lot of records!

Fish, Marillion, solo, June 29, 2008
This chat took place at the penned-in table area outside in front of the venue, so it wasn’t surprising when gobsmacked fans would stoop to interrupt from time to time.

Peter Hammill and Guy Evans, Van der Graaf Generator, July 4, 2009
Upon hearing that Van der Graaf Generator were making a rare visit to Toronto, and to an easy and relaxed venue just down the street from my office, the Opera House… well, I knew I had to sort out to be there to chat with this most interesting and gothic and dark of UK prog institutions. Intimidated I was, but the three of them were all charming fellows, as we kept the conversation light around a sticky barroom table right out front, pre-soundcheck.

John Wetton, King Crimson, Uriah Heep, UK, Asia, May 12, 2012
John Wetton was one of my very first in-person interviews, back in 1995, and here we were 17 year hence, and John is back, improbably fronting the exact Danger Money lineup of UK for a rare show at the Sound Academy.

Michael Sadler, Saga, July 20, 2013
It’s rare that I got out for an in-person interview really anywhere past 2010. I just started to find it all too stressful, dealing with road managers and security, and especially at the Sound Academy, which always seemed locked up like Fort Knox.

Steve Hackett, Genesis, GTR, solo, November 2, 2015
This chat with Steve was set-up by our long-standing best buddy of PR, Chip Ruggieri, who was tasked with promoting the expanded reissue of the lone GTR album.

You don’t need to be a die-hard ’80s metal fan to know that the fruits of an artistic alliance between Danger Danger singer Ted Poley and guitarist/producer Steve Brown of TRIXTER is going to make melodic rock fans rejoice! The two musicians from New Jersey have recently created TOKYO MOTOR FIST and the new band is ready to unleash on the world their self-titled debut album on February 24, 2017 via Frontiers Music Srl.

Ted and Steve have been friends for a long time. They were playing the same club circuit with their respective bands, Danger Danger and Trixter, when both bands were starting their careers. Over the years, they’ve had a great personal relationship and the idea of doing a record together has been in the cards for many years. Now, thanks to Frontiers this concept has become a reality.

“To say that I’m excited for the world to hear Tokyo Motor Fist would be an understatement,” says Steve Brown. “Working on this project with my Rock and Roll Brothers Ted Poley, Greg Smith & Chuck Burgi was a total blast….We had fun and it shows in the performances and in the music! As a songwriter I couldn’t be happier with the way the songs came together. Fans of TRIXTER, DANGER DANGER, Def Leppard , Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick will get the best of all those worlds.”

Ted Poley adds: “Working with guys of this caliber was amazing. I was excited to collaborate with my long time friend Steve Brown, who is not only a really great songwriter and guitarist but also an insanely cool producer! The band sounds great and very high energy. The vocals of Steve and I along with his SHREDDING guitar, combined with the World Class rhythm Powerhouse section of Greg Smith and Chuck Burgi is amazing, what a cool band – the sound is HUGE. But it’s the songs that drew me into making this album in the beginning and the record is full of catchy songs with massive choruses and great melodies and sounds BIG BIG BIG! I am beyond THRILLED with the final result and I hope you will be too.”

Beefy and energetic, “Tokyo Motor Fist” is sure to please not only Ted Poley, Danger Danger, and Trixter’s fans, but all fans of melodic hard rock. Don’t miss this superb release!

ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE – the project featuring MEGADETH bassist and EMP LABEL GROUP‘s President David Ellefson and ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello – is currently in the studio in Hollywood, California recording material for their new album, with the producer Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER, STONE SOUR).

David Ellefson commented: “What started out as simple bass ideas quickly developed into some really great songs together. Our fans would probably never suspect that a couple of metal bass players would have songs like these inside of us. It’s exciting to write melody with diversity while still pushing the limits of lead-bass playing. Frank’s singing, and both of us playing guitars and other instruments, gave us a whole new dimension for creative opportunities.”

Frank Bello added: “We thought it would be cool to let fans hear something they wouldn’t expect from us — which is what ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE is”.

Regarding how ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE came together, Ellefson told recently Guitar World: “We were doing bass clinics for our endorsement of Hartke bass amplification a few years back when the ‘Big Four’ were playing shows together. I just said to Frank, ‘We should really write some of our own material we can play for these clinics. Something unique just for us.’ So at Bass Player Live! at the Key Club in Hollywood, Frank got us talking to ANTHRAX producer Jay Ruston, who is also a bass player, and he got excited to get on board to record some songs for us. We agreed to do just a few songs we could release in EP format. This would make the workload easier with all of our schedules and even allow us to continue releasing more songs moving forward as well. Jay brought in Jeff Friedl on drums and even suggested Gus G. to play the solos I wanted to have on the track ‘Here Again’.”

November 16 2016, Zurich

Review and photos my Micki Curti

Swedish band Europe has completed again a successful Tour. This time the five Acclaimed Scandinavian musicians accomplished their mission to celebrate in style with fans their 30th anniversary Tour of THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, the album from 1986 that officially sealed their world success. The anniversary tour started on November 8th in Stockholm, Sweden, kicking off the celebration in their hometown Stockholm, where it all started 32 years ago. The concert was sold out. Then the tour proceeded on November 10 in Bruxelles, Belgium, November 11 Koln Germany, November 12 London which was sold out and recorded for a future live DVD. On November 14 the band played in Utrecht, Netherlands, November 15th Paris, November 16th Zurich and November 17 Lausanne, Switzerland, November 19th Rome and November 20th Milan Italy ( also sold out), November 22nd Barcellona and November 23rd Madrid Spain ( sold out as well) . There was supposed to be a Kiev concert, which the band was really looking forward to playing, according to a message on their social media outlets, but it got unfortunately cancelled. I had met Ian this past February and he had told me of this planned tour and celebration, pretty much in the same days of the official announcement: therefore I had to make due to an accurate follow up to share this event with all of you. So I did, I attended the concert in Zurich, Lausanne, Switzerland, Milan and Rome Italy. The Photos are from the concert in Zurich on November 16th.

One element that truly made this tour one of a kind, was the playing the latest album WAR OF KINGS in its entirety and the rendition of the album whose 30th anniversary was this year “ the Final countdown”, which was also played in its entirety. As the lead singer Joey Tempest announced at the starts of concerts,“ it is something we have never done before and that we will not do again”, that is to play THE FINAL COUNTDOWN and WAR OF KINGS entirely. Band members John Norum , guitarist, Joey Tempest, lead singer, Mic Michaeli, keyboards and Ian Haugland on drums let the world listen to their entire albums just this once, making it a very special occasion for their supporters. Songs like “Heart of Stone”, “ Ninja”, “ Love Chaser” were always on young fans LP players, along with the famous tunes “ The Final Countdown”, “ Cherokee”, “Rock the Night” and “ Carrie” but many of these songs had not been played since that tour in 1986-1987. Many fans had not listened to some songs since that tour in 1986-1987. For many fans in their early 40’s now, these were songs that they had never listened live, in many circumstances due to simply being too young back then to attend a live concert. When researching old set lists from the 1986-1987 tour, lists taken from the USA tours had a mysterious, un-typed 13th song. When looking at this list and comparing it to the album list, the one missing was “ On the loose”. With this missing piece of history, one can state that only a few countries on that tour in 1986 , including Sweden, were able to listen back then to the full Album set list from “ the Final Countdown”, making this tour in 2016 a clearly irreplaceable time for their supporters.

When the concert started, it began with “ War of Kings” jolt of energy “ Hole in my Pocket”. The rhythmic power of this song is an outstanding gem that the band has offered before but that never ceases to capture. “ Nothing to Ya” has their own nieche of super faithful fans following, among the already faithful following and caused a higher realm of arms in the air. “ Days of rock’n roll”, the modern day fanfare continued to grab the audience in dancing and rocking away. “ War of Kings” and “ Second Day” projected more energy among fans with an ever energized Joey Tempest and a fired up John Norum, showing how it is done. “Vasastan”,“ Children of the Mind”,“ Angels with Broken Hearts” “ California 405”, “Light it Up and “ Rainbow Bridge” were among the songs never played at all before which brought the audience in a status of participated emotion, since there was truly no other live to be compared to before, prior to this tour.

Between John Norum’s magic and strong flights of guitar, Joey’s vocal power, Mic’s atmosphere-enriching intros and a cohesive, seamless fraternal energy among all the band members and instruments, the live concerts of this tour were in fact un-replaceable pieces of history. Nothing was left unplanned and due to the absolute uniqueness of the occasion, every stage detail was carefully tailored by the highly professional Europe crew, to let the band deliver those memories . After the whole set list from WAR OF KINGS, the screen projected a return back in time video and showed images evoking an old computer and an ancient countdown, with a message on this old 80’s style computer, looking like a Commodore 64, that read a very warm thank you message from the band to listeners for these 30 years. All this unfolded while the still apocalyptic notes of “the Final Countdown” were starting.

Fans in the audience were projected to their younger years, their sacred 80’s and most of all down memory lane. Everyone to this day, younger or older, metal and rock fan or not, sings to “the Final Countdown” and many more fans proved to be faithful to the musical repertoire that Europe has produced until now, by singing and rocking vividly at all songs. One fan in the Lausanne show even brought blue-light blinking 80’s glasses to further the 80’s ambiance. In songs like “ Heart of Stone”, “ Love Chaser”, “ Ninja”,“ On the Loose” and “ Time has come” John Norum lead the band in a powerful return to those riffs, riffs that know no time or limits. The fact they had not been played in so long cut the atmosphere in a way that was tangible for all of us there to feel. The band brought on their un-parallel high power presence and while all songs provided a overflowing stream of energy among the audiences, there were certain songs that seemed to simply stop time for a moment.

During the songs from THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, in the amazed and captured audience moments, images of the band touring in the 80’s, fire, smoke effects and outstanding lightning accompanied the whole atmosphere to make us feel again at a 1986 gig. Norum and Tempest embraced the stage holding the audience down to those years and letting them know those guitar momentums are not over yet. And the audience reacted tenfold loving those riffs and those tunes again, singing at every note and word, as if no year has passed. If this did not create a “ big enough wow”, effect, the band furthered this gratefulness by giving homage to all faithful fans from those years by projecting a few photos taken with some of them during the 80’s and I became aware of several of these fans actually being present at the concerts of the tour. For many people, the song “ The Final Countdown” with those catchy initial apocalyptic keyboard notes that Mic came up with one day and Joey built upon, became a song we all sing to this day and we have all been riffing to with our guitars for 30 years and beyond. I spoke with fans that were at the Anniversary concert and many of them told me that they “ were too young back then to attend this particular Albums’ tour and listening to these songs finally live finally filled a musical void in them”. One gentleman from Ireland told me he now has seen many Europe gigs but this held a special spot in his music memories, since back in 1986 when he was 12 years old, his older cousin Paul did not agree to bring him to the concert. I am certain many of Europe supporters born in the mid 70’s can relate to this story and I know for sure I can. Overall fans from all ages appeared in absolute joy to be able to attend such a one–of-a-kind event. The audience had young, younger, older and not so old fans, children of fans, every age of listener represented, all captured by these tunes. Many traveled from far away to attend one, two or more concerts of the celebration tour, especially if their home country was not included in the tour dates but not only limited by that.

Supporters to the band flew in from the Japan, the USA, the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Czech republic, Taiwan, Italy, Germany and more countries were in attendance at one or more of these concerts, in support to the band and celebrating the 30th anniversary to a song from an album that intermingled beginnings and “ countdowns”, weddings, mixed life circumstances, the Geico commercial and definitely in every radio station and every music hall around the world. The two set lists were, in the end ,a great success in the crowd, proving a Joey Tempest in top vocal shape, John Norum with an ever growing outstanding guitar presence, the Maestro Mic Michaeli linking songs magically, a powerful Ian Haugland at the drums and John Leven masterfully offering a precise, soft but assertive base. The band showed the world they are now indeed in their 50’s but still playing skillfully, roaring in energy and with endless creativity. The images of them young proved they were indeed in the 80’s with spandex, tight pants and big hair but the high quality music and a talent they had back then has been simply amplified to the 100th level and it showed on this tour.

Songs were as majestic as ever, maybe also due by the fact that for so many of us, the older tunes had only played in our stereos, never live. Lead singer Joey seemed to impress upon us that yes they were indeed here to bring energy to audiences everywhere, grateful for 30 years and with a presence that communicated “ there will be many more years to come”. Since there was already a 30th anniversary concert tour for the band’s first 30 years of career in 2014, now a 30 years anniversary tour to “the Final Countdown” album, we sincerely count on this to be the start of a musical tradition, at every Europe’s album anniversary. When I told Ian this after the Zurich concert, he smiled and said “ how many years old will I be in 30 years? Never too old for great music…never too old.

SET LIST

1. War of Kings 2. Hole in My Pocket 3. The Second Day 4. Praise You 5. Nothin’ to Ya 6. California 405 7. Angels (With Broken Hearts) 8. Days of Rock ‘n’ Roll 9. Children of the Mind 10. Rainbow Bridge 11. Vasastan 12. Light It Up 13. War of Kings 14. The Final Countdown 15. Rock the Night 16. Carrie 17. Danger on the Track 18. Ninja 19. Cherokee 20. Time Has Come 21. Heart of Stone 22. On the Loose 23. Love Chaser 24. Snippet of “ The Final Countdown”

INTERVIEW WITH PETE HELMKAMP AND GENE PALUBICKI OF ANGELCORPSE

Angelcorpse is known for its extreme barbaric nihilistic death metal with Pete Helmkamp’s vital raw vocals. Along with the guitarist Gene Palubicki, Angelcorpse has been terrorizing with the barbaric outburst since 1997. The band has spent a quiet era time to time and returned back with the full scale extermination. Both the members of Angelcorpse have carved their marks in the underground and still push the boundaries in other projects. Therefore Metal-Rules.Com sat down with Pete Helmkamp and Gene Palubicki to talk about various topics.

The newly reunited RATT — featuring singer Stephen Pearcy, bassist Juan Croucier and guitarist Warren DeMartini — has been confirmed to perform at next year’s edition of the M3 Rock Festival, set to take place on Friday, April 28, 2017 and Saturday, April 29, 2017 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.

Metal icons, ACCEPT, recently made the release of their new live package called Restless And Live,public. This package will include the entire show ACCEPT played at Bang Your Head!!! Festival 2015on 2 CD/DVD.The release will be available in stores from January 13th, 2017 (Nuclear Blast). To provide you with a taster of this new masterpiece, the band led by axe man Wolf Hoffmann presents their first trailer for their upcoming 2 CD/DVD today. In this clip, Wolf and ACCEPT producer Andy Sneap talk about the setlist and about new as well as old classics from ACCEPT. Today, the band presents their second trailer: In this clip, Wolf and Andy discuss the recording of the show at Bang Your Head!!!. Check it out here:

Wolf explains: “It was actually never really planned, it sort of just happened. At Bang Your Head!!! they always record their shows so we just thought: ‘Yeah, let them film it!'”. After Andy praises their stage show as being crucial for the great atmosphere, Wolf continues: ‘Yes, as well as the crowd. We’ve been there before so it felt familiar to film it and see what happens. Then we got the footage and we thought: ‘Wow, it’s pretty good!'”

Prepare for your special ride inside the Vehicle Of Spirit! After touring for a year and a half throughout every corner of the world, NIGHTWISH‘s time has come to immortalize the Endless Forms Most Beautiful World Tour 2015 – 2016on DVD/Blu-Ray/CD.

The US release date for this monumental trip through the discography of the symphonic metal visionaries is January 6th – so right before Christmas, you will be able to witness two full shows from London and Tampere and plenty of bonus material. Watch the first trailer here:https://youtu.be/R6Xr8Zk9_io

Sold out arenas and spectacular shows with never before seen pyro effects, wind machines, video screens and of course NIGHTWISH‘s incomparable melodies are the elements that made their latest tour so unique. Special highlights for the band have been two particular shows though:

The one in London, where they not only played their hymns such as “Élan” and the majestic “The Greatest Show On Earth” to more than 12.000 fans, but also welcomed the world famous scientist Richard Dawkins live on stage with them. Richard Dawkins´ works had a massive impact on the thematical orientation of their latest studio album Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Finland’s Tampere show however was a home run for the band and never before NIGHTWISH had such an immense stage production with them:

“I would say the main part of the DVD are those two shows, both Wembley and Tampere. Wembley is mentioned first due to its recognizability and legendary status. I remember the show being very special, both a goal achieved, and a starting point. The crowd was heartwarming. The presence of Richard Dawkins on stage was just mind-blowing. The overall experience was a once-in-a-lifetime thrill ride! The show in Ratina Stadion, Tampere, was a home crowd specialty (for 4/6th of the band) with the biggest stage production we’ve ever had. A lovely atmosphere throughout the concert, with many same faces in the front row as there were 15 years ago. Heartfelt.”

When it comes to the fine artwork of the DVD, NIGHTWISH decided to walk different paths this time and come up with a little alternative idea, as Tuomas explains:

“We didn`t want to include a traditional band shot for the cover, as on the previous DVD release Showtime, Storytime. So we started brainstorming on different options and the idea of a classic silent movie era Hollywood visuals quickly came up. With those classic slogans the cover has a little tongue-in-cheek-touch to it, but it’s still classy and eye catching in its simplicity and originality.”

Legendary New Jersey thrashers, OVERKILL, have announced their 2017 North American trek with Egyptian themed technical death metal champions and labelmates NILE. The 25-date tour will kick-off on February 14th at The Trocadero in Philadelphia, make stops in Chicago, Anaheim, and Washington, DC before ending at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ.

Bobby “Blitz Ellsworth comments, “Can’t wait to roll ‘the wheel’ down the road. This Feb & Mar, USA, coming to a stage near you! Let’s make it another one to remember! Onward! Upward!”

OVERKILL will be touring in support of their upcoming album, The Grinding Wheel, which will be released February 10th via Nuclear Blast. Recently, the band released the video for “Our Finest Hour”. Enjoy an impression of the mighty thrash inferno with this lyric video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElxZ1oz9A68

NILE is touring in support of their latest release What Should Not Be Unearthed.Watch the official lyric video for “Evil To Cast Out Evil” on the Nuclear Blast Youtube Channel.

“All of us in NILE are really looking forward to the upcoming USA Tour with OVERKILL. This Tour is going to be Metal as Fuck,” comments NILE Mastermind Karl Sanders.

ABOUT OVERKILL
Although everybody seems to have a different account of who came first in the world of New York/New Jersey area thrash metal, it seems certain that New Jersey’s OVERKILL have stayed around the longest, and have never let their fans down by remaining musically consistent and true to their roots for over 30 years.There are few names as well respected as OVERKILL, and with the resurgence of metal in the music world, this band is poised to return to the top. OVERKILL are ready to show mature metal heads they still have it and are geared up to teach the new schoolers exactly how it’s done.

Sirenia + Týr + Unleash The Archers + Xaon + Relicseed

@ O2 Academy Islington, London

November 27, 2016

Review by Torbjørn ‘Toby’ Jørstad

With five bands playing a vast range of different styles of metal, including symphonic, folk, melodic death, and power metal, this evening featured one of the more diverse lineups I have seen in my concert attending career.

ULI JON ROTH

Uli Jon Roth is a German guitarist who became famous as the Scorpions lead guitarist between 1973 and 1978. During that time, the band released studio albums FLY TO THE RAINBOW, IN TRANCE, VIRGIN KILLER and TAKEN BY FORCE followed by a live album TOKYO TAPES which was also the last Scorpions release featuring Roth. Next, he formed his own band called Electric Sun, which released three albums before retiring up in 1986. After Electric Sun Roth entered a new stage of creative work, composing a number of solo albums, four symphonies and two concertos. Today, Roth is known as one of the first and most important inventors of the neo-classical metal genre. In February 2015 Roth released a 2-CD studio album SCORPIONS REVISITED. The album includes re-recorded versions of his era Scorpions songs, and it became a great success. I met a good-humored Roth in Helsinki in October. We discussed, of course, about the Scorpions but also other things such as Roth’s upcoming solo album and ongoing changes in the world of music. The story continues…